The $500 F250

nice truck btw! that stuff on the cab floor, I'd get more of it (dyna mat?) - some kind of ashpalt/aluminum stuff and cover the entire floor all the way back before putting a new mat in- it really quiets the ride, alot, especially if you take off the door panels and put it up in there also and get it as high on the firewall as you can - also put some on the ceiling, makes it quieter driving in the rain

A little tall guy advise to how do mess around back by cylinder 4. Either set yourself on the fender, feet on the battery tray (no battery of course) or do the same thing with the hood off. Helps alot and it keeps it from looking like the truck ate ya!

jbancroft - This isn't my first project car by a long shot and I am very methodical about how I proceed with each one. Other aspects of the project, such as the brake system are in the works. The main focus of the project right now is to ascertain whether or not the current engine will be ok or will need to be rebuilt. I will then move on to the next phase. As for the vac secondary 750, good grief it will work fine. The primaries are no larger than the stock carb and I am well versed in tuning and modifying Holley carburetors. The throttle response even with just 7 cylinders is as good as one could ever expect from a low compression 460. Besides, the stock carb was not usable and I traded my 950 for this one, so I didn't spend a dime on it.

Killgore - the best thing I did the other day was to bungee cord the step stool to the bumper so it could not slide away when I leaned in. lol I was considering using a 'mission impossible' style harness and cable hung from the house to suspend myself over the engine bay. j/k haha

Killgore - the best thing I did the other day was to bungee cord the step stool to the bumper so it could not slide away when I leaned in. lol I was considering using a 'mission impossible' style harness and cable hung from the house to suspend myself over the engine bay. j/k haha

Why did I not think of bungee cording the step stool to the bumper? I tried the step stool method, but as I was already overloading it, it broke as I was leaning in and I smacked my face on the top of the fender.

Sometimes success is measured in incremental steps rather than monumental gains.

I skipped the eating part of lunch and went straight to the wrenching part.

I pulled it all apart and you could move the valve up and down with your fingers. Pretty lucky the locks did not pop out while it was running! I fed in about 4 feet of nylon rope into the cylinder, which was really easier that I thought it would be. I had to slightly modify the spring compressor with a BFH because it kept hitting the cowl right when I needed it to compress the spring. Once that 'adjustment' was made, I pulled off the old spring, and the remnants of the old seal. I put a new seal on it and reinstalled the "new" spring and buttoned everything back up. Crank crank cranky crank crank. Would not start. At all. I messed around with it for a few minutes, pulled the vac advance hose off, and shoved the dist way over, and it finally cranked up.

Now, here's where the incremental steps part comes in. At idle it acts like it's missing and smokes a bit, but hold the throttle open and it clears out, stops smoking and runs smooth. Let off the throttle, and it'll idle for a few seconds really smooth, then start to act like it's missing again. Since I moved the dist, the timing is probably all jacked up, but I am very very very very very very happy with the improvement. There is also ZERO sign of blow-by coming out of the valve covers. If I had time to throw a timing light on it, and get it set correctly, I might have tried to drive it back to work. But, over all I will call this a win.

It has a Duraspark on it. The Demon carb was not rebuilt but I did rejet it and reset it right after I got it. I also put new metering plate and bowl gaskets in it when it was apart.

I will reset the distributor and get it back where it belongs. I probably should verify the TDC mark on the damper too before I get too far along. I have a good spare I can use if this one has slipped.

The lack of blowby out of the open valve cover grommet when it is running has me feeling really good about this short block. Just wish I had several days in a row to just work on it!

<p>That's awesome! When my truck is in good enough driver status and I have a decent job I do want to be able to see if a 460 fits into a Miata <img src="http://images.ford-trucks.com/forums/images/smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Big Grin" smilieid="4" class="inlineimg" />. I do remember seeing that mustang in hot rod and thinking "how badass is that"

(I should specify I know a 460 won't fit in a Miata, I just meant your mustang inspired me)</p>

Went home, pulled the valve cover and plug (which actually looked cleaner than it previously did), loosened the rockers, attached the air-hold and **whooosh** air starts coming out of the carb and fuel is flying everywhere. *Check the exhaust, nothing and it does not seem to be coming out of the crankcase. *So I think it's a safe bet the intake valve is the culprit. *

I decide I have time to pop off the spring and see if I can spin it and maybe clean off any crud that has built up on it. *I feed the rope into the cylinder, turn the motor over, remove the locks, retainer and valve spring. *I pulled off the old seal, which actually did not look too bad, and proceed to twist and turn the valve to my heart's content. I back the piston down a hair and bang the valve into the seat and twist some more. *When I was finished, I replaced the seal with a new one and put the spring, locks and retainer back on. *Put the rocker and pushrod back on and proceeded to pull the rope out of the cylinder and that's when it happened.

The rope was pulling out nicely, then it stopped dead. Will. Not. Budge. At. All. *

Here's what I know:
a.) I can feed it back in. *No change.
b.) I can rotate the engine. *No change.
c.) I cannot turn the engine completely over.
d.) I can open the valves. *No change.
e.) I have no idea how much rope is in there.
d.) You cannot feel anything in the rope when operating the valves or rotating the engine.
f.) *I literally rocked the truck back and forth pulling on the rope.

Went out this morning wnd removed the right front wheel and proceeded to cut the inner fender away enough that I could access the #4 plug easier. *

That was harder than it sounds because I could not get my snips in there very easily. *Once I had the metal opened up, I could get a good look in there with JWS4621's HFT inspection camera. *That thing was worth it's weight in gold today.

I decided to try the cordless drill idea but I needed a way to grab onto the rope. *So I got a 16d nail, cut off the head and bent the tip into a hook shape. *Then I chucked it up and proceeded to 'drill' the rope out. *It did not work real well at first and finally I was left with a piece about 2" sticking out the plug hole. *I was a little nervous and after a while, I decided to just use a regular drill bit since we all know they are really good at getting things wrapped around them. *That's when I really started making progress.

At this point I was thinking I probably got the most of it.... a quick look with the camera showed there was still some in there....a lot more. *I continued with the drill bit method and eventually several very large blobs worked their way out. *In all, I am betting there was about 18+ inches of rope that was stuck in there.

I used a small pick/hook to fish out any remaining strands. Once I was satisfied that I had all of it out that I could possibly get, I pulled all the plugs and hooked up the compression tester to #4. *Spun the engine over and it went to 105 real quick. Whoo hoo! (a side note to that is: I totally forgot to open the throttle blades when I did that test, so it might even be a few #'s higher.)

I reassembled everything and the moment of truth was at hand..... *I cranked it up and it was still running poorly. *I whipped out the timing light and clipped the inductive lead on #8... *yep it was intermittently firing, same story for #7. *However, #4 and the rest seemed fine now. *I decided to run over to Oreilly and get a brand new cap and rotor. *I had been using the old rotor and a new cap I found behind the seat when I got the truck. *I came home and swapped it out and sweet fancy moses, it runs like a top now. *Well.... a 40 year old top. *It has a hint of smoke when you rev it up, but nothing too serious. *

I was feeling brave, so I drove it to the gas station because I was sure it was about to run out of fuel. *Filled it up, drove it home and I found the fuel leak(s)! *The rubber part of the vent tubes for both tanks has a crack in them. *Not a big deal if you only make left turns, but it certainly pukes out on right turns.

I also noticed that the front set of shocks (there are 2 on each side) were both leaking, so I decided to just take them off. *In fact the lower bracket on the right side was loose and flopping around, so off they came. *I also removed the under-bed spare tire mount because it was all bent up and it was banging around under there.

Finally, as any self respecting gearhead knows, no car or truck is with it's salt unless it can do a burnout. *Well I really didn't want to fry my BFG's, but I did have to see if it would spin them a bit in the driveway. * *Great success.

Thus ends a great day of working on the truck. *Man, I am so relieved.....and tired.